“It isn’t a matter of dragging them into a united Ireland but it is a matter of thinking about new relationships and they are thinking about new relationships.”

Mr Adams said he was not talking about a Border poll. “What is required is a consistent, strategic position that doesn’t have to be in your face.” The position should be carefully, thoughtfully arrived at and the Government should then ensure “it’s quietly pursued”.

It’s worth noting as an aside that Mr Adams is unaccustomed to doing things quietly, not least his call for an unconstitutional (in two jurisdictions) for all island poll on the matter. The headmasterly permission of the NI Secretary of State aside, a written constitution (and Supreme Court to fiercely safeguard it) can be a useful sanity check in the midst of the madness that is Irish politics.

For those not yet spotting it, the passage of play last week at the MacGill Summer School was less a case of the other party leaders catching up with SF so much as bringing SF into line with the more cautious mainstream southern line on unification and border polls.

Until, that is, it is next convenient for them not to be. The mission, as always, being to break the bastards. [Whomsoever they might happen to be? – Ed] Quite.